April Fool´s Day
by Kari-chan-06
Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?
1. The Plan

April Fool´s Day 1: The Plan

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?

Additional note: I came up with this around 2 am last night and it just wouldn´t go away, so I thought I´d just go ahead and share it with you.

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"Are you serious? C´mon, Dinozzo, that´s even below your level. There´s no way!" Kate stared at her partner in disbelief. What he had just told her sounded incredibly funny, but impossible to do at the same time. "He´s got at least half a dozen security locks on his basement door. We´re never going to get in there. Especially because he´s about done with his boat."

"Well, that´ll be the fun of it. Imagine when he walks into his basement and the boat is gone. Hey, he made you shoot your PDA, you told me you were going to burn down his boat for that anyway-we´re not going to do any harm to his beloved boat. And it´s April fools day tomorrow anyway." Tony replied and fell silent when the doors of the elevator slid open.

"He´ll kill us." Kate whispered and then followed him into the bullpen. "Morning, Gibbs." She greeted their boss, who was sitting at his desk. The look on his face told her it was not going to be a pleasant day. Ducky had told him yesterday that he had to go to thebase to get a complete medical examination within the next week. Gibbs had had problems with his eyesight lately and Director Shepard had taken the chance to get him into a full evaluation this time. He had skipped the last two all together, but there was no way he was going to wind himself out of this one.

Of course, Gibbs was pissed off royally by that, but he had no choice this time if he wanted to keep his job. He just mumbled something in return to their greeting and continued to scribble on a piece of paper that lay in front of him. McGee came walking over to them. "I called my cousin and he said it´s no problem if we got about 10 hours for each time. He got some special stuff that is perfect for this. And he´s got a guy at his shop who is small enough to fit through that vent, in case someone needs to do work on the inside afterwards." He told in a low voice, glancing over at Gibbs to make sure he didn´t hear it.

Kate´s eyes widened and she stared at them. "Give me a minute, who else is in on this?" She asked and just met grinning faces. "Oh my word..." She managed before Gibbs jumped up from his desk and glared at them.

"You´re not paid to have your little chats around here. Kate, where is your report on the Sullivan-case? Dinozzo, why is that computer not working? McGee, get me some coffee." He barked at them and Tony pulled a face. He walked over to the large desk and took a look at the computer.

"I fixed it last night, boss. What ever happened to the front? I don´t recall that dent in there." He said and Kate dove behind her desk to surpress a laugh. She knew what was coming now. "Gee, boss. That´s the third computer this month. These things don´t work faster when you kick them, they really don´t." Tony said and then walked back to his own desk.

"It´s working on my dryer at home though." Gibbs said and sighed. "Get it working now, Dinozzo. I´ll be down in autopsy for an hour, hands off my phone." With that, he rushed out of the bullpen. The three agents exchanged looks until they heard the elevator doors closing.

"Geez, he´s really pissed off, isn´t he? Now, who else is in this, Tony, Spill it." Kate told her colleaguewalked over to his desk, as did McGee.

"It´s basically us three, Abby and Ducky jumped on last night as well. I think, Director Shepard and Palmer might know about it, but they don´t seem to mind." He said and Kate felt her jaw dropping.

"Tony, he´s going to kill us and let our bodies disappear without anyone noticing." She told him, but smiled at the same time. "All right, how are we gonna do it then?" They put their heads back together and except for a roar of laughter, nothing could be heard from the outside. When Gibbs returned about an hour later, all three were at their desks, trying to look occupied. Tony had gotten a new computer for Gibbs from the IT-department. They were now working on a double-layer front to make sure he wouldn´t damage another one by kicking it.

At the end of the day, Gibbs looked around when he got up. "I will be gone the next 36 hours, if you need something, you can call me on my cell phone. Tony, you´re in charge. Better got some results on that Tyler-case when I get back." He told them and was gone a moment later. McGee ran over to the phone and checked with Abby, who was looking for Gibbs to walk past her lab.

"Okay, he´s gone." She told him and ran to get Ducky from the autopsy room immediately. The five of them gathered in the bullpen and set to work as they had planned before. Tim called his cousin Mike, who owned a construction company. Tony called a friend who owned a truck that was large enough to haul a boat. Afterwards they packed up and drove home, curious about what the next day would bring.


	2. The Boat

April Fool´s Day 2: The Boat

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?

Additional note: I came up with this around 2 am last night and it just wouldn´t go away, so I thought I´d just go ahead and share it with you.

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Abby was staying with Kate for the night and set up her laptop in the livingroom. "I put a chip into Gibbs´ cell last time he left it lying around in my lab. This way we always know where he´s at. I even added a perimeter alert when he pulls in closer than 5 miles. The base is about 15 miles from his house, so we got plenty of time. Ducky made sure they are keeping him really busy there." She told Kate, who was smiling about her friend´s excitement.

At 7 am, Abby watched the GPRS signal leave the house and alerted everyone that they were ready to roll. They met half an hour later at the house. Gibbs loved to keep his private life private, which was an advantage for them as he lived a bit off the main road. His place was surrounded by trees that made it hard to see what was going on there. McGee´s cousin checked the outside wall of the basement and grinned. "Heck, that´s just a simple cardboard wall with some cement smeared on. Don doesn´t even need to go in -we just have to take the wood off on the outside and can unscrew the boards afterwards. No need to get a new wall built at all." He said and they grinned.

Tony´s friend Hector got there with his truck two hours later, just when the wall had been removed. After the men had loaded the boat onto the truck, Abby and Kate cleaned out the basement. Everything went well and around4 pm, the wall was up again. They lifted it up once without fixating it yet while Kate and Tony stood inside the basement.

When they took it down again, both grinned. "Looks like the old one -no way to tell a difference." Tony said and they finally screwed it on. The outside of the house was laid out with wooden planks, which were easily put back over the wall. They had sorted all screws and planks to put it together the same way it used to be. It was9 pm when they were finally done. Hector brought the boat into a storage section only two blocks from NCIS headquarters.

All were tired, but somehow very excited. They knew that Gibbs would be back the following morning. Ducky had driven up to the base to make sure he was still being held for examination and he was indeed. Abby stayed at Kate´s place again, being too tired to drive home. She checked the laptop again and found the signal still at the base. "I wish I could be a fly on the wall in his basement tomorrow. Bet he first checks on his boat when he comes back."

Next morning, all were back at the office at 7:30 am already. They finished their work and waited patiently. Gibbs would walk out of the elevator at 8:10 am sharp, like he always did. Kate was running a search for a license plate on her computer and kept glancing at her watch. 8:09 am. She looked at Tony who was grinning widely. 8:10 am. The doors of the elevator slid open and they put their best pokerface on. "Good morning, Gibbs." Kate called at him and she could see from his face that he had indeed looked into his basement before coming in for work this morning. "I don´t know what´s good about this morning, Agent Todd." He snapped at her and took his phone out. "Gibbs. I need someone to look at my house, someone stole my boat out of the basement. No, a real boat, one that is used to go for a tour on the lake. Yes, out of the basement. No, I am not kidding you. Hey, don´t you..." He shouted into the receiver and Kate dove under her desk to hide the grin on her face. "Todd, what you doing down there?" He demanded immediately.

She pulled a pen out of her bag and got up again. "Dropped my pen, boss. Something wrong?" She asked and looked at him. He was upset, really upset. In fact, he didn´t even try to read her eyes when she met his gaze, which was highly unusual.

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "Somebody stole my boat." He said and she threw a puzzled look at him.

"You´ve got your boat in your basement -how could someone steal it?" She asked and saw that McGee was making a beeline for the restrooms. Obviously, he was about to break down with laughter.

"No clue, that´s the problem there." He said and continued to mutter curses.

Ducky turned up half an hour later and looked at Gibbs. "Jethro, you do look unwell today. Is there something wrong?" He asked, his voice full of concern, which caused Tony to take a dive beneath his desk this time.

"My boat is gone. I´m going to kill the bastard who did that if I find him. If there´s one scratch on that boat, I promise he´s dead." Gibbs said between clenched teeth and started to pace the room. "The police called me crazy when I told them -they seriously advised me to see someone about it."

Kate got up. "I´ll be in the lab, need to get something checked." She said and walked to the elevator. When the doors closed, she couldn´t help smiling. He finally got the payback for all the little mean things they had endured over the last months. Abby was bouncing off the walls when she told her. "He´s completely confused. Never seen him like that."

"Wow, awesome. So, what are we going to do now?" Abby asked and handed her a cup of caf-pow from her desk.

"Ducky will send him to a therapist he knows well. He´ll be there a whole day and get back really late at night. We´ll put the boat back and when the therapist comes along to have a look at the lost boat, it will be there again like nothing happened." Kate told her and Abby squealed with delight.


	3. Outside the window

April Fool´s Day 3: Outside the window

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?

Additional note: I came up with this around 2 am last night and it just wouldn´t go away, so I thought I´d just go ahead and share it with you.

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Their time came the following day. Ducky had taken Gibbs to a friend of his, who was running a lab on the other side of town the evening before. Gibbs had finally given in to have the analysis done and take the therapist to his house the evening after to prove that he wasn´t going mental. Like before, they managed to open the wall without any problems and put the boat back where it belonged. Abby and Kate put the basement back into the state it had been before their prank.

Ducky would give Tony a call when they left the lab, which gave them 40 minutes to get ready. The call came in at 11 pm and by 11:20 pm all of them were there. Cars were parked a block away and they were hiding behind the large oak trees. "That´s Ducky´s car." McGee whispered when a silver chevrolet pulled into the driveway, followed by a green truck, which obviously belonged to Ducky´s friend. The kept their heads down until the three men had disappeared into the building. It was dark already, which was not unusual, even on a spring day like this one, so they slowly crept up to the basement window.

"Ouch, that´s my arm." Abby complained when Tony leaned over her.

"Sshhh. They´re coming, the light on the stairs just went on." Kate said and put her hand over her mouth. All of them held their breath. Abby had put a bug on Ducky and they had a small radio with them so that they could listen to them talking.

"Jethro, I must say you really have me worried. A boat doesn´t just disappear from a basement like yours. There are five locks on this door and I don´t see any of those broken." Ducky said and Tony rolled across the lawn laughing. He almost choked and McGee patted him on the back until he could breath again.

The basement door creaked open and the light was switched on. "See, I told you that..." Gibbs started, but then, his face fell. "But...but it was gone. I swear it was. C´mon, Duck, you know me."

Kate pulled away from the window and dropped to her knees a few feet away. She was laughing so hard that tears were stinging in her eyes. She still had her hand over her mouth to muffle the laughter though.

"Jethro, I believe that you´re working much too hard, my friend. Maybe it would be good if you take a short leave. Get your head off a bit, consider different options..." Ducky now said and Abby came crawling over to Kate´s side, doubling over with laughter as well.

"Hell, Duck. I´m not mental. The boat was not here when I came here yesterday. I´m not going to take a leave and I´m not going to consider any options orwhatever you call it." Oh yes, Gibbs was pissed off very royally.

All four agents outside the window retreated a bit, still stiffling their laughter. When they reached the trees, Kate felt like she had just run a marathon twice in a row. Her sides were aching and she could hardly breath. "Oh my word, this is so good." She managed between short breaths.

They calmed down again and waited for Ducky to come out again. The radio was still on, so they could hear what was going on inside the house. "Thank you, Jonathan. I shall call you tomorrow." Ducky told his friend, who then left the house and drove off. "Jethro, I´m really worried about you here. Don´t you think you are putting too much weight on the job of yours?" Ducky now said and all of them knew where this was headed.

"Duck..." Gibbs growled at him, but didn´t go on.

"I believe you ought to think about it some time. You´re acting like the job is all there is in the world. Jethro, you have a team full of wonderful young people. They´re looking up to you as a leader and all you do is barking orders, yelling or telling them what they are doing wrong. There ought to be a nice word to say to them once in a while, don´t you think?" Kate noticed the tone in Mallards voice and knew that Gibbs was close to find out what really happened.

There was a long silence. "Duck, I´m just going to ask you this one single time: Do you know anything about this whole thing?" Gibbs asked and the four of them started to make their way to the main street.

"If he gets out there before we make it to that corner, we´re dead." Tony said while he ran beside Abby, who was still holding the radio.

"DINOZZO!" Gibbs´ voice boomed out of theradio so loud that Abby dropped it. They nowran for their bare lives. Abby lost her balance on the curb and slammed onto the pavement. She winced, but got up again with McGee´s help. Kate turned her head around once and saw a shadow bursting out of the front door of the house. They reached their cars and jumped in. They had left the keys in the ignition, which was a stake, but probably saving them right now.


	4. Out for blood

April Fool´s Day 4: Out for blood

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?

Additional note: I came up with this around 2 am last night and it just wouldn´t go away, so I thought I´d just go ahead and share it with you.

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Three cars tore out of the street and down towards headquarters. They had prepared something special for their boss -partly to cheer him up after these events, but mainly to save their necks. They knew that they would probably need protection detail the coming morning for sure and hoped that Shepard would keep the ammo locked up for everyone´s safety. Since they hadn´t given him anything for his last birthday, they now had some electronicequipment for his boat sitting on his desk along with a $20 coupon from Starbucks.

They had blankets and changing clothes in their lockers because they knew it wouldn´t be safe for them to go home this night. They planned to camp in the gym, mainly because it was rather comfortable on those wrestling mats, but also because they could stay on the balcony which held some maintenance stuff. Itwas only accessible from the main gym by a ladder. They pulled the ladder up, just to make sure they were safe and let the events of the day pass by again.

Abby was sitting in the corner with McGee, who tried to stop her hands from bleeding. He had grabbed the first aid kit out of the locker room as they had gotten their clothes.Her left wrist was swelling and didn´t look too good. "We need to get Abby to a doctor, her wrist looks bad." Tony said after checking on her. Kate just nodded. She was worried too, but Abby had insisted on coming with them.

"Just a scratch -I´m not going out there again tonight. If Gibbs spots any of us, he´ll make sure our bodies are never found." Abby said and drew a sharp breath as Tim was putting some antibiotic ointment on her hands.

"I set the alarm on 5 o´clock. Plenty of time to..." Kate said and suddenly fell silent as she heard a sound outside the building.

The gym was closest to the parking lot, so it could be about anyone working at NCIS, but somehow all of them knew who was coming."We parked out front...we´re dead." Abby muttered and started to slide further into the corner. The balcony had a 4 ft high and 12 ft wide banner on the front which covered them from sight. All of them huddled together behind it and held their breath.

"DINOZZO! TODD! MCGEE! SCIUTO!" Gibbs´ voice boomed through the building and they swallowed hard. He hadn´t made it to the gym yet, but he would surely check there too.

"Cell phones off, everyone." McGee whispered and they shut the ringer off just a second before Kate´s phone started to jump to life. She shut it off completely, as did everyone else, because they feared that he might see the lights.

Kate felt awful all the sudden and when she looked around, the faces of her colleagues were equally ashen now. If he found them here now, they were screwed. "He´s going to kill us." She mouthed at Tony, who just nodded.

He got his cell out again and started typing a message while Kate covered him with her coat to shield the light. After a moment, he came up again. "I told Ducky to get the police." He whispered and a second later, the main lights in the gym went on. Steps echoed through the large room and they held their breath again. It was completely silent now and no one dared to move. Kate felt her leg cramping and bit her lip. She was not going to make a sound and her lip started bleeding because she bit down so hard on it.

The lights went off again and they heard his steps growing fainter, but they still didn´t move yet. He would go into the bullpen next -from the parking lot the lab, autopsy and the gym were easiest to access. There wasn´t another sound for at least an hour in the whole building. Kate felt tears streaming down her face from the pain in her leg. She finally dared to shift a bit and the pain got worse. Tony noticed and looked at her. "What´s wrong?" He mouthed and she just shook her head.

Another hour passed and they were getting restless by now, but they didn´t dare to move out yet. Their prank had gotten them into grave danger and Tony was ready to swear that he would never pull a prank on anyone ever again. Suddenly, there were steps coming closer to the gym and the light was turned on again. They held their breath and locked their hands, fearing that he might have heard them.

The door of the gym closed again, but there was still someone in the room. McGee looked through a small hole in the banner and spotted only one person down there. "Anthony? Caitlin? Abigail? Timothy? Are you here?" A voice asked which they recognized as Ducky. "Well, I am not sure where you went into hiding, so I guess I will tell it in this room again. Jethro is in the bullpen and would like to talk to all of you. I assure you he has no intention to kill you or something like that." Ducky said and walked out again. He turned off the light as well.


	5. Lesson learned?

April Fool´s Day 5: Lesson learned?

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?

Additional note: I came up with this around 2 am last night and it just wouldn´t go away, so I thought I´d just go ahead and share it with you.

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They remained in their hideout for another 10 minutes before Abby slowly got up. "Let´s go face him then." She said and swallowed hard. She trusted Ducky and that was the only reason she was willing to move out of this safe place. She felt the pain in her wrist again and supported herself with her elbow on the rail. McGee got up too, putting an arm around her to keep her steady.

Kate tried to get up, but she couldn´t. Tony knelt down next to her. "What´s wrong?" He asked and saw that she was holding her left leg. Her face was a mask of pain and he knew something had to be wrong.

"I got a cramp, but I couldn´t move. I think I´ve ripped something." She said, her teeth clenched together tightly. He tried to help her up, but the second she put weight onto her leg, she fell back down. "It´s no use..." She felt tears in her eyes. That´s not how it had been planned.

McGee put the ladder back in place and helped Abby to climb into the still darkened gym. Tony put his arm around Kate. "Let´s get you down there." He said, but when she winced in pain, he let her down again. "I´ll carry you, but you have to hold on, right?" He said and they eventually made it down to the floor without falling, but Tony almost lost his grip twice. The second time, he hit the ladder with his head and saw bright flashes dancing in front of his right eyes. "Damn..." He muttered, but continued to climb down.

Abby looked rather pale by now and Kate knew she was in a lot of pain. Tony rubbed his eye andhe would surely be sporting a wonderful bruise there by morning. McGee put his arm around Abby and supported her as they walked towards the door. Tony helped Kate and they followed the other pair.

Ducky had been walking around the building, trying to get them out of their hiding place. He walked back into the bullpen now and looked at his friend. "I have checked every room, but I didn´t see them anywhere, Jethro. I´m not sure they will come out -they seemed really scared. Tony sent me a text message, begging me to get the police to help them. You scared them to death." Ducky said and sat down on Tony´s desk.

Gibbs was standing in the middle of the bullpen, his face unreadable as always. He tried to calm himself, after all, no harm had been done and he actually liked the things that were sitting on his desk. He was going to tell them off right now, but there wouldn´t be other consequences. Ducky had told him all about their prank during the drive and it had surely been a very unique idea. He had actually smiled about the whole thing, but he wouldn´t let them know right away.

"Believe me, they will. Don´t worry, I will only give them hell tonight. It´s been quite a unique idea to tear the wall down and let the boat vanish for a day or two. I would have never thought of anything like this. Besides, now I know how easy it will be to get the boat out when it´s done." Gibbs said and smiled. There were steps in the hallway just outside the bullpen now.

Ducky walked out to the hallway to take them in, but the moment he opened the door, his face fell. He immediately turned back to Gibbs. "Jethro, I believe we will need an ambulance. Would you please call for one?" He said in his calm manner and then disappeared into the hallway.

Gibbs was confused, but did as Mallard had told him. When he walked out into the hallway, he realized why Ducky had asked for an ambulance. Kate was leaning on Tony, obviously in pain from something on her leg. Tony himself was sporting a purple bruise around his right eye. McGee was kneeling on the floor over a lifeless form, which he recognized as Abby. "Her wrist is broken. Timothy, walk out the front and see that the ambulance canfind us." Mallard commanded and the young agent immediately sprinted out.

Kate felt her vision narrowing and tried to focus again, but her energy was draining now. Her leg hurt like hell and she felt herself slipping out of Tony´s grasp. The pain in her leg doubled for a short moment before she blacked out. Tony caught her before she hit the ground. "Ducky!" He called out and settled her onto the ground.

"Jethro, would you please have an eye on Abigail for a moment." Ducky said and Gibbs felt his mind returning to reality. He knelt down next to the blackhaired lab assistant. She had her eyes closed and her face was evenpaler than normal. Both her hands were covered with blood and her right wrist looked bad. It was swollen and the joint was blue and black from internal bleeding.

Half an hour later, both women were loaded into the ambulance. Kate had regained consciousness and was sitting up while Abby was put on the stretcher. When the ambulance tore out of the parking lot, their four male co-workers stood in complete silence. Gibbs looked at the faces of his agents and knew that they had probably learned more than just their lesson tonight. "Let´s get home. It´s late." He just said and started to walk over to his car. "C´mon, Duck. I´ll drop you off to get your car."

Tony looked at McGee with a puzzled expression, but neither one talked. After a moment, Gibbs turned back around. "We´ll talk about all this later, but thanks for the equipment." He called at them and got into the car.

"Well, that did go rather well, don´t you think?" McGee said and met a glaring look from his colleague.

"Not taking into account that both Kate and Abby got hurt and that he almost killed us, yeah, it went all right." Tony replied and held the wet towel over his eye again. He sighed and started to walk over to McGee´s car, who had offered to drive him home. Next year, he would get a really special prank rolling for Gibbs, something bigger than this, but it was another year until that chance came. After all, nothing had really happened or had it?

END


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